When the kid hits you waht do you do? I mean, toddler, 20 months old, hits hard and he is laughing about it. Do you hit him? Do you yell? Do you try to catch the hand? What?

I catch his hand if I can move fast enough and I say "OH My GOODNESS!!" with a very worried and scared and surprised look on my face. Then "We don't hit! hitting HURTS...Mommy will cry and be sad" and then I will remind him about gentle touches...and show him what it means.

Sometimes it takes a while to get the message across but eventually they do get it. IMHO the absolute WORST thing you can do is hit him back...that's just a ridiculous response actually.

ITA with Melissa! What is hitting him back teaching him? I will grab his hand if I can, tell him that hitting is wrong, it hurts Mummy etc. If he does it more then 3 times he goes to his room for a couple of minutes of time-out.

We also do what Melissa suggested. :nod: IF we can grab his hand before it connects, we grab it and remind him that we don't hit and that hitting hurts and we'll be sad if we are hit. He usually laughs and tries to do it again. :rolleyes: I'd imagine that this sort of thing will taper off in time. :lol: We don't usually catch his hand in time.....in which case, we grab the offending hand and repeat about not hitting and how hitting hurts.

Well, we NEVER ever hit him, but he does, and it hurts, he constantly hits and laughs. Also he kicks all the time. Likes to throw the stuff at us, he thinks it's a funny game and doesn't know it hurts.

I went through this with Katie and finally the one thing that worked was just giving her a time out every single time she hit and saying over and over, "Everytime you hit, you get a time out."

I tried: catching the hand, saying that hurts mommy and being sad. it didn't work
Everytime she hit, I would leave the room because "she obviously didn't want me around." didn't work


It was only the time out thing that worked.

If I remember correctly we did the catching hand thing and Mummy will be sad as well. Also I would always say Hands are for hugging not for hitting and make him give me a hug. Same thing, your mouth is for kissing not for biting.

Well, we NEVER ever hit him, but he does, and it hurts, he constantly hits and laughs. Also he kicks all the time. Likes to throw the stuff at us, he thinks it's a funny game and doesn't know it hurts.

That's cause he's a baby. He doesn't instinctively know that kicking, hitting and throwing hurts. He has to be taught. Be consistent and he'll get it eventually.

Caleb has been very aggressive recently too. Hitting, shoving, pushing, throwing. I'm waiting anxiously for the day it stops. I just remembered back when he was head butting... that was the worst and it did eventually stop so I'm hopeful! :thumbsup:

I try to catch caids hand...then I say "no Caid, be nice" and hug him, use his hand to carress my face, etc.

Christopher is now 21 months. When I'm at home I use the naughty chair. If he hits someone (usually me) or throws something at someone he gets 3 minutes in the naughty chair. The naughty chair is just a booster chair with a tray table that sits on the floor towards a blank wall. For lesser offenses he gets one minute in the chair. It works if you're consistent but that is the hardest part of disciplining your child.
Good luck!

When Josiah was about that age he went through it too. Not the kicking, thankfully, but he was hitting. I instantly scooped him up, sternly said "NO HITTING" and I put him in his room (where I can lock the door and he can't get out.) He cried and cried and cried, the whole time, and I'd go in after a few minutes and get on my knees, hug him, tell him I loved him, and remind him that we don't hit. He eventually got it. I'd go in, kneel down, and he'd walk up to me for a hug saying, "NO HIT". And thankfully that phase passed!

For me I think they key was consistency and making it VERY clear that that is unacceptable behavior. I took it very seriously and always reacted the same way.